The Cult of the Street, Henry Bond

Henry Bond wandered the streets of London deliberately rejecting any idea of a brief or theme for what he was shooting - the more he planned, the more banal the work became, so he leant into the unexpected moments captured before, after and on the way to somewhere else. He engages randomly and at will with what is local, messing with concepts of idealised beauty, whether at the fringes of glamour photography or hanging around clubs and house parties trying to get people not to pose for him, capturing them looking authentically vacant instead. A big book that plays candid imagery off against posed pictures in a way that explores ideas of confrontation and permission in everyday life at a time when surveillance cameras were on the rise and paparazzi imagery was everywhere. Emily Tsingou Gallery, 1998. Good condition, some wear and tear to corners, minor discolouration and small marks on some pages.